Patch 7.5--Revisiting Aatrox post has 20k views

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/riot-official/hkoPVLbp-patch-75-revisiting-aatrox

And 422 comments. I think this is a lot for a champion that apparently no one cared about.

The majority of the comments are totally against the changes to Aatrox.

EVEN if they concede that the changes were made so that he would be buffable later, they disagree with the path. They also take issue with how Riot could release him so weak after PBE feedback suggested he was weak.

Meddler acknowledged that his performance is much worse than they expected.

What exactly were they expecting? And based on what? They lowered his damage output significantly while suggesting that now you can or should build him tanky.

Let me break it down for you:

1)New Aatrox=less damage 2)Tanky Build=less damage 3)New Aatrox with Tanky build=even less damage.

Of course he was going to do poorly. Any champion can build tanky. But there is very little reason to build tanky on Aatrox other then trying to get the measly healing bonus from missing health, which is still not as strong as his old triple heal. Why would you pick Aatrox when you can build tanky olaf and enjoy built in resistances and true damage?

For those of you who don't know Aatrox, its was always largely a myth to say he was weak. He was quite strong in many match ups. Aatrox mains knew how to get the most out of him, and could dominate. In most of my accounts last season I maintained a 60% win rate with him, playing him against any top laner, even hard counters. But I'm also not that great of a League player to begin with. There are mains who have a higher win rate.

Top laners usually have built in defenses:

Riven has a shield that scales off of AD Jax can block incoming damage and gets resistances when he ults Patheon can block very often Nasus gets bonus resistances from his ult and a burst of bonus HP Olaf has built in passive resistances with his ult Fiora can parry damage Wukong passive give him bonus resistances Teemo has a blind which will prevent incoming damage from attacks Garen can stack passive resistances and reduce incoming damage

Some people like Camille, Darius and Irelia (though she does have passive tenacity) don't have built in defenses (though Darius has quite a strong heal), but they are doing a lot of damage--physical, magic, true and % of health damage. None of which Aatrox really had before and now definitely will not be doing.

It was okay for Aatrox to not have any defensive abilities because of his passive but mainly because of his insane healing. Its not like there was no counter play to this. Any CC to stop him attacking, Randuins or Frozen heart, Nasus wither or anything that reduces attack speed and of course

With his new W, his insane healing is gone. Even building tanky he wont be as tanky as other top laners can be and he will be doing far less damage than the old Aatrox. Especially considering the fact that unlike many MANY tanks and fighters he will face, he doesn't have a way to reduce the enemy armor, do %health damage or true damage.

And sorry, but the bonus 25% base AD from his Blood Rush comes no where close to compensating for the 60-200 bonus damage plus 100% bonus AD from his old Blood Price.

Also, most mains were okay with paying health. Just a little less maybe on the Blood Price and flat amounts on his Q and E scaling up as he levels the abilities. Don't think for a moment that we are okay with all of these nerfs to him just because Q doesn't cost mana E is a flat 30 health.

I think Riot should revert the changes and spend a little time getting real feedback from the Aatrox payers who have thousand and thousands of ranked matches with him. You would be surprised what they find and the changes that would happen after. You would find that most Aatrox mains can easily see how with a small buff he would be totally oppressive. You would find that most mains consider him quite strong and that one of the reasons he is considered weak is because of wrong thinking on builds, and basically a self perpetuating cycle of discrimation--teammates think he is weak so they don't trust his engages or think because hes down 2 kill in lane its a lost cause because "Aatrox sucks" so the jungler doesn't bother to help.

If Riot took opinion of Aatrox mains you would see these changes in some variety

1)His Q would be slightly improved. Maybe a slightly wider knock up area, or shorter cool downs, or a window when its immune to CC. You wouldn't see all 3 you would see 1 of these three most likely.

2)He would have a little more utility. Maybe his E would grant vision on effected enemies. Or maybe his Ult would do damage to minion and monsters, allowing his ult to be useful for stealing dragons and barons.

3)You very easily could see his revive vanish. Most mains have stated they would gladly trade his passive for more strength in other areas. Instead of a revive maybe a lifeline shield of 5 seconds based on his bloodwell upon taking fatal damage.

4)You might see his ult help his team. Instead of the AOE magic damage, his ult might only grant him bonus Attack Speed, but also movement speed and a team buff to allies nearby.

I think a lot of you think that Aatrox mains just want Riot to buff him so hes super strong. You are wrong. We main a champion that took a lot of work to learn how to win consistently with. We are very thoughtful about this, and if we wanted easy wins, we would have mained another champions. And partly we LIKE playing the underdog. I think we would prefer him to stay nuanced and dependent on marginal judgment calls.

I would love it if Riot thoughtfully responds to this post.